The 2001 Animated film by Tristar Pictures, directed by Rintaro, and animated by Madhouse. It did not actually involve Osamu Tezuka and was made after his death. It draws as much from the classic German film Metropolis as it does from Tezuka's manga of the same name, and does not attempt to be faithful to either. But it was rated on one film site's all-time best animated films list.

In a Zeerust future, an elderly Japanese detective and his young nephew arrive in Metropolis, the most advanced and wealthiest city in the world, on the trail of a wanted Mad Scientist and organ trafficker. Assigned a robot detective as a guide, they track the man down to a lab in the undercity just to see it destroyed by a Knight Templar with an anti-robot agenda. Out of the wreckage crawls the doctor's greatest achievement, a naked and inhumanly beautiful young woman with apparently no idea who she is, what she is, how she got there or what clothes are. The nephew and the girl then get separated from his uncle when the floor gives way.

As the film unfolds, the detective attempts to find his nephew, the nephew attempts to find out both the nature of the girl and how to escape from the undercity, the city politics take a turn for the worse, and the city's most powerful man seeks the girl as a prop in a somewhat messianic agenda.

This move provides examples of the following:

Accidental Pervert: Very noticeably avoided. Tima goes without pants for a fair part of the movie, keeps sitting facing Kenichi, and he doesn't flinch or say anything. Given that he's dressed like a boy scout and seems to be something of a "boy adventurer" in the style of Tintin and his ilk, his extreme politeness doesn't feel all that weird.

A God Am I: Or rather, "A Goddess I'll make!" courtesy of Duke Red who despises how humans are ruled by emotions and inferior robots, so he has Tima created as a supreme creation to rule over the world as a computer weapon with Red in charge. Doesn't turn out well.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Both in the usual sense, and in the sense that some robots are obviously sentient while others of the same model aren't.

Bittersweet Ending: Played straight and possibly averted, depending on the version you watch. The Ziggurat falls, Duke Red and Rock are explicitly shown dead, the city is devastated in the fallout, and poor sweet Tima slips from Kenichi's grasp right as her sense of self is returning, falling into the burning abyss. The final scene hints that Tima's parts can be reclaimed, and her spirit is still somehow broadcasting through a radio. However, there's also a final image after the credits that full-on reveals that Kenichi was somehow able to rebuild Tima, and they've opened their own robot company together. Unfortunately, despite being in the original Japanese and English theatrical releases, the image was cut from the English DVD release, for whatever stupid reason. Luckily, the image is restored in the streamed Hulu version (it was also there in the 2005 [adult swim] showing).

Canon Immigrant: Rock wasn't actually in the original manga. His characterization here is largely taken from his appearance in Tezuka's next major sci-fi manga after Metropolis, Nextworld.

Conspicuous CG: Makes extensive use of this for the backgrounds and scenery while keeping the characters traditionally animated.

Cool, but Impractical: The firefighting robot thingies. Of course, given how extremely cramped the streets are, a bunch of slowly-assembling but small, easy-to-transport units may actually be more efficient than an instantly-ready but cumbersome piece of equipment.

Cool Old Guy: While Kenichi's uncle is mostly presented as source of humor, he proves he's no pushover and even beats down Rock, even after he was injured.

Cosy Catastrophe: After the Ziggurat explodes, Metropolitans seem to take their new pile of rubble in stride.

Crapsaccharine World: A colorful, pastel city of equally plush robots who are willing to do your bidding, not to mention trustworthy people in charge. Oooh, and look, someone built a huge tower. Perfect vacation landmark, right? Until you realize what the huge tower is really for, and how corrupt the officials really are. Not to mention the massive degree of discrimination towards lower class workers who are forced to work and live in slums while also hating robots who are similarly discriminated against for taking their jobs.

Creator Cameo: In the score, oddly enough. There's one bit of music that features a prominent part for bass clarinet; according to the liner notes of the soundtrack, one of the bass clarinetists is Rintaro himself.

Death by Adaptation: As mentioned elsewhere, Tima is shown to survive in a scene not in the American version.

Doomsday Device: The Ziggurat is meant as a way for Metropolis to extend its military power, but in the wrong hands...

The Dragon: Averted. Rock appears to be set up as Duke Red's Dragon and right-hand man for the first two minutes, then they have a chilly conversation and work at cross-purposes for the rest of the movie.

Even Evil Has Standards: Rock and one of the city officials discover Kenichi and Tima in Zone-3 and Rock starts shooting at them. The official is surprised at him trying to murder children and tries to stop him as gunfire in such a necessary area like Zone-3 could potentially ruin the infrastructure of Metropolis. Rock shoots him for his troubles.

Expy: Appropriate considering the characters stem from the designs of Osamu Tezuka, each of the main characters is an expy of those featured in AstroBoy:

Duke Red is a blatant expy of Dr. Umataro Tenma/Dr. Boynton/Dr. Balthus from his views on his robotic ward to control mankind to his birdlike nose

Tima is a blatant expy of Astro given her identity as a humanoid robot built in the image of deceased child and destined for grand schemes by the villain

Rock is a blatant expy of Rock Holmes and even shares his appearance from the hairstyle and shades to his usage of firearms.

Fantastic Racism: In Metropolis, robots are popularly discriminated against to the point they must have special clearance to leave their designated work zones or be shot on sight by members of the the anti-robot disciplinary party funded by Duke Red known as The Marduke, like Rock.

Gender Flip: The main robot of the original manga was techinically able to be either male or female with the flip of a switch on their neck but spends most of the story as a boy, whereas Tima is 100% female.

MacGyvering: Shunsaku jerry-rigs an old television set, a rotary phone and some loose wiring. Using Tima, he's able to hack into a government power grid and pinpoint the location of his nephew Kenichi.

The Morlocks: Not deformed yet, but things are going badly wrong for the lower-class Metropolitans.

No Communities Were Harmed: It's implied that the coastal region of Windsor, Ontario is the setting of Metropolis. This can be seen in various structures and maps of the area spread throughout the film.

Oh My Gods!: Characters make references to "the gods," implying people in Metropolis follow a polytheistic religion.

Poisonous Friend: Rock makes some very counterproductive attempts at protecting Duke Red. He refuses to let a robot have the power which he thinks can only be used by his "father", even it means completely going against his orders.

Pragmatic Villainy: Doctor Lawton doesn't use human organs in his robots, because he claims they don't last very long.

Reused Character Design: Tezuka's "actors" reprise their original roles from the manga, while Rock (who wasn't in the original manga) comes in to provide conflict and shoot stuff.

Even when there is Soundtrack Dissonance, there is not Lyrical Dissonance: The lyrics fit a number of the characters rather snugly because the song is about a guy who cannot let his lover go, and announces he will reject his sad reality and start living in the beautiful past.

Stuff Blowing Up: In a very impressive sequence, Rock manually activates the Ziggurat superweapon while its still in cool-down (the equivalent of a ICBM exploding while still in its own silo), triggering the destruction of the superstructure and surrounding district. It inadvertently saves Kenichi from Tima, as she's disconnected from the systems that have taken control of her.

Sunglasses at Night: Rock in most of the film. This is never brought up in the movie. (It makes sense if you know the rest of Tezuka's manga works...)

Take My Hand: Kenichi to Tima as he's trying to pull her to safety near the end. She doesn't.

The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Subverted. While it's clear that the government here needs to be toppled, Atlas' murder of Pero and the subsequent wanton violence by the riot/rebellion shows that the "revolution" isn't all that good either and leave the city a complete mess where everyone except the top city officials are left homeless.

Unwitting Pawn: Atlas and the President who are both killed down the line once their usefulness ends.

Also applied to Atlas and his revolutionaries, who kill Pero and tear ass through Metropolis in order to topple Duke Red.

"Well Done, Son!" Guy: Although Rock is only Duke Red's (sort of) adopted son, his entire motivation for trying to kill Tima is to get him to love him, and only him, as his own, while hating Tima for being an artificial daughter surrogate made in the image of Duke Red's already deceased daughter.

What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Duke Red doesn't even care that his artificial goddess is dressed like a street person. That's a subtle bit. Also the non-protagonists treat the robots as cattle and all the sentient robots in the film end up dead—unless you count the apparently-recovered Fifi and not-totally-gone Tima. The Japanese protagonists (and possibly Atlas, despite viewing harsh treatment of the robots as necessary) are the only people that relate to the robots as sentient entities.

Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Tima. After getting shot and realizing that she's a robot, she takes control of immeasurably powerful technology and orders the extinction of humanity.

Yandere: Depending on what you think Tima was trying to do at the very end.

"From now on, your name is Pero!" "Wasn't that your dog's name? "So? That was a great dog!"

Probably unintentional, as this is actually a Mythology Gag. The character first appeared in an Astro Boy story, where instead of being a straight robot he was a cyborg created from the nervous system of a dog due to his creators wanting an army of killer robots but were unable to get their hands on AI that wasn't Three-Laws Compliant.

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